Children’s best interests must be a primary consideration when they are involved in criminal proceedings. However, children victims and witnesses of abuse are often re-victimized by justice systems that are not adapted to their rights and needs. Poor implementation of the forensic investigation tackles the welfare of a child due to the lack of capacity of legal and justice professionals as well as victims’ support services, regarding the forensic interview.

The aim of the 2-year ENCLAVE project, funded by EC Justice Programme, is to foster impactful changes in criminal proceedings so as to introduce and mainstream an effective and coherent implementation of the protocol for forensic interview for child abuse to prevent repeated victimization, intimidation and retaliation connected with violence. The overall goal of ENCLAVE is to boost the implementation of a more appropriate and victim-sensitive approach within criminal proceedings tailored to the particular needs of children victims and witnesses of abuse.

The ENCLAVE team brings together academia, professionals and experts in fields of criminology and gender based violence from Belgium, Estonia, Greece, Italy and Spain to increase the capacity of legal and justice professionals on the application of the protocol of forensic interview with child victims and witnesses of abuse, and to advocate for compulsory capacity building for corresponding professionals involved in criminal proceedings with regards to child abuse.

The objectives of ENCLAVE are:
 Increasing the capacity and knowledge of legal and justice professionals in EU civil, criminal and fundamental rights instruments addressed to children victims or witnesses of abuse.
 Increasing the capacity of victims’ support organizations, especially on the implementation of the and its added value in their practice (implementation of protocol for forensic interview for child abuse).
 Getting professionals of different disciplines working with children victims of abuse (legal and justice professionals and staff in victim support organizations) familiar on mutual collaboration regarding the protocol for forensic interview on child abuse, aiming to maximize the mental welfare of children.
 Maximizing the prevention of re-victimization and re-traumatization of children victims and witnesses of abuse.
 Improving mutual understanding and trust between legal and justice professionals in cross-border judicial co-operation through mutual training and knowledge.
 Communicating the project outcomes and activities among target groups/beneficiaries (victims support organizations and units, legal professionals, etc.), other stakeholders (national and European policy makers) and the general public (national and European levels), and update existing protocols for forensic interview and/or foster the development at the absence of use.

Partners:

Union of Women Associations of Heraklion Prefecture (UWAH) – Lead partner
Women’s Support and Information Centre NPO (WSIC)
UNIVERSIDAD CARLOS III DE MADRID (UC3M)
University of Crete (UoC)
Eurocrime – Research, Training & Consulting Srl (Eurocrime)
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KULeuven)

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NPO Women’s Support and Information Centre’s self-financing in the project is co-funded by National Foundation of Civil Society with 3159,39 euros.

NGO Pärnu Women’s Support Centre, NGO Women’s Support and Information Centre, NGO For the protection of Non-Violent Life and the Icelandic partner organization Rótin are jointly implementing the project “Trained specialists help to reduce domestic violence in Estonia”.

The project is funded by the European Union Structural Funds (European Economic Area (EEA) and Norwegian Financial Mechanisms 2014-2021, Local Development and Poverty Reduction program) and lasts for 18 months: 01.02.2021-31.07.2022

The general objective of the project:

Through trainings conducted in five major regions of Estonia, specialists in contact with victims of domestic violence at the primary level are aware of the causes, consequences and possibilities of assistance, and more effective cooperation between agencies has helped reduce domestic violence in Estonian society.

It is important to raise the awareness of professionals about violence and thus to build a safer society. Conscious professionals not only deal with the consequences but also contribute to prevention by giving professionals the opportunity to intervene at an earlier stage of violence, where the damage is easier to reverse and the mental health of potential victims cannot suffer to the same extent as those living in long-term violence.
The training material produced by the project deals with intimate partner violence very extensively and, in addition to the key elements, addiction issues, violence against the elderly and cyber violence, distance counselling and cooperation mechanisms have been introduced as new topics.

In addition to the specifics of intimate partner violence, specialists are also trained to work as joint regional teams. In order to avoid re-victimization by support systems, the cooperation of professionals in contact with the victim is critical. As a result of the project work, the members of the network trained work together to find the best solution for each person in need, in order to avoid re-victimization by the state. It also requires finding informal solutions and involving additional professionals. In addition to specialists from support centres and local governments, as well as victim support staff, the project will involve partners who have not been involved so far, such as family doctors and nurses, and court representatives.

Project Manager:
Margo Orupõld (Pärnu Women’s Shelter NPO)
naistevarjupaik@gmail.com

“Free from sexism and sexual harassment at school” – FREASCO

FREASCO is a European project promoted by Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme and aims to: facilitate the early detection and reporting of episodes of sexism and sexual harassment as well as prevent gender-based violence occur within school and university contexts through the development of digital tools and targeted guidance to schools and universities.

In particular, the project addresses the cross-sectorial cooperation of  7 partners in 4 countries, in order to achieve the following specific objectives:

• Raise awareness and promote prevention on the phenomenon of sexual harassment, gender-based violence, stereotypes, homophobia and discrimination;
• Develop and disseminate practical tools for teachers and school/university staff to identify and prevent sexual harassment and gender-based violence;
• Monitor and improve the state of implementation of methods aimed at combating gender-based violence in European schools and universities;
• Strengthen the role of school and university staff in the fight against sexual harassment and gender discrimination.

More info: www.freasco.eu

Project period: 01/01/2021 – 31/12/2022

Partnership:

UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI FIRENZE (Lead Partner; Itlay)

CENTRO STUDI CULTURA SVILUPPO ASSOCIAZIONE (Italy)

IRIS SrL (Italy)

UNIVERSITY OF TARTU (Estonia)

WOMEN’S SUPPORT AND INFORMATION CENTRE NPO (Estonia)

SC PSYTEL (France)

INSTITUTE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT (Greece)

NPO Women’s Support and Information Centre’s self-financing in the project is co-funded by National Foundation of Civil Society with 4 793,6 euros.

In Europe, 80% of all chronically ill people are taken care of by informal carers – people who provide unpaid care outside of a professional or formal framework. While caring for a loved one can be a source of great personal satisfaction, it also creates challenges, like physical and mental health problems, a feeling of social exclusion, difficulty in balancing paid work with care responsibilities and other possible financial worries (Eurocarers).

Although when a family member has a chronic illness or disability one of the relatives often acts as the “primary care provider”, in which roles are often reversed (i.e. a child taking care of their parent) which often affects all family members (Wright and Leahey, 2000). A functional relationship among caregivers and care recipient is the key for a successful change of roles and the adaptation of the family, therefore, supporting only the primary carer is not enough. Furthermore, people belonging to different age groups and with different kinships to the care-recipient (young/adult children, grandchildren, spouses) can have different experiences and perspective on the burden of care, so it is necessary to take all of them into account in order to be able to provide comprehensive and effective support. Research has also demonstrated that the caregiver stress that often arises in informal caregiving situations can lead to situations of abuse. Almost 10% of older people who are cared for by family caregivers are at risk of elder abuse (Ananias, Strydom, 2014).

In order to respond to all these needs the partnership believes in the importance of developing and piloting a model of pedagogical interventions based on a family-focused approach able to identifying strengths as well as vulnerabilities of all family members, addressing the challenges that might arise from the disease and building individual and family resilience.

The educational tools developed will be based on experiences carried out in Greece, by Alzheimer Hellas, and will be adapted and transferred to all other country contexts. The main practical results expected on the completion of the project are:

(1) a tested narrative based workshop for informal caregivers, adapted to different EU-country contexts, and targeting households who are caring for older dependent family members with the goal of increasing their family-resilience;
(2) guide for professionals to identify and address issues that emerge from workshops;
(3) a MOOC, to transfer the results achieved and the lessons learnt to a wider audience of professionals;
(4) E-course and online educational platform for informal care givers and professional support providers.

More info: www.sincala.eu

Partnership:

Women’s Support and Information Centre NPO (lead) (Estonia)
University of Tartu (Estonia)
Greek Association of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders (Alzheimer Hellas) (Greece)
Anziani e Non Solo (Italy)
CASO50+ Centro de Atendimento e Servicos 50+, Associacao (Portugal)
Spominčica (Forget-me-not) – Alzheimer Slovenia
Union of Women Associations of Heraklion (Greece)

Project Manager:
Mari Puniste, mari.puniste@naistetugi.ee, +372 51 986 544

The Erasmus+ funded RE-ABILITY  (Adult education to promote RElational Ability) project is an intervention project aimed at strengthening socio–relational and emotional skills on women victims of violence, welcomed in the shelters, with or without their babies. The ultimate goal is improving the parental skills to make a better connection between mom and children to establish a new balance and offering to the women new educational pathways to improve their skills.

Within this project three intellectual outputs will be produced:
1. Parental Educational Plan

Within this project, a learning needs analysis will be carried out with the ultimate aim of knowing what women inside the shelters and social operators who work with them need to achieve the expected results. The first step is the realization of the Parental Educational Plan, a tool aimed at analyzing the baseline of the parental skills to better define the goals to reach to improve the relationship between mom/child.

2. Toolkit for educators to fulfill the Parental Educational Plan

3. Policy recommendations

New educational needs: recommendations from mothers who have been victims of violence. This is a report in which the data and results of the two previous outputs are presented together with real policy recommendations so that women/mothers are given a voice in dialogue with political decision-makers.

Project period: 01.10.2020 – 30.09.2022

Lead partner: 3P (Padre Pino Puglisi) Societa Cooperative Sociale (Italy)
Partnership:
Women’s Support and Information Centre NPO (WSIC), Estonia
Union of Women Associations of Heraklion Prefecture (UWAH), Greece
Parents’ Association “Step by Step”, Croatia
Consorzio Tartaruga, Italy
Asociatia ANAIS, Romania

Building teachers competence about cyber violence against girls

The project CYBERSAFE MOOC will address the topic of online violence against girls which is a pressing problem that many school professionals are not equipped enough to address or tackle. For that reason, we have decided to bring the topic closer with several project activities:

• a survey of schools (Estonian results (in Estonian))
• development of MOOC and educational material
• multiplier events for teachers

The main objective of the project is to bring together experts in the field of online violence and gender inequalities to develop educational material for educators/school staff/professionals working with young people, mainly in primary and lower secondary education (pupils and students 13 – 16 years old). In the project the main focus will be on the following forms of online violence against girls: a) Non-consensual sharing of intimate images or/and videos, b) Exploitation, coercion and threats c) Unwanted sexualization, and d) Sexualised bullying.

The main objectives of the project are:

–   To conduct a representative school survey in 4 EU countries/regions about online violence in schools

–   To support teachers and other school professionals with the development of new innovative teaching approaches

–  To develop an e-learning course (MOOC) with curriculum on cyberviolence against girls

Project period: 01.09.2020 – 31.08.2022

The countries and institutions participating in the project are the following:

Slovenia – University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Social Sciences (Lead partner)

Estonia – University of Tartu and Women’s Support and Information Centre NPO

Greece – Union of Women Associations of Heraklion Prefecture

Northern Ireland – NEXUS – Northern Ireland Rape Crisis Association

Netherlands – International Child Development Initiatives

Denmark – Serious  Games Interactive

Multi-agency approach to support victims of intimate partner violence with substance abuse issues

MARISSA addresses the phenomenon of co-occurring Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) victimization & Substance Abuse (SA) problems. Existing victim support programs seem to fail to address the scenario of addicted victims of IPV because the two elements (IPV & addiction) are treated separately, while it would be necessary to be approached under a common-wise protocol.

MARISSA will develop practical multi-agency tools & capacity building material on the topic, so as to facilitate professionals & improve the offered services for women with co-occurring IPV victimization & SA; along with implementing strong awareness-raising activities to inform stakeholders, victims & the general public about this important issue.

Project Lead Partner:
Union of Women Associations of Heraklion Prefecture / UWAH (Crete, Greece)

Partners:
University of Crete (Greece)
University of Tartu (Estonia)
University of Iceland (Iceland)
Women’s Support and Information Center NPO (Estonia)
The Root – Association on Women, Addiction and Mental Health (Iceland)

Project duration: 2 years – June 2020-May 2022

More information: mari.puniste@naistetugi.ee

NPO Women’s Support and Information Centre’s self-financing in the project is co-funded by National Foundation of Civil Society with 7223,25 euros.

Multi-Agency Response to Violence Against Older Women (MARVOW) is a two-year EU project – from September 2019 to September 2021 – with a project team of six partner organisations in four European countries: Austria, Estonia, Greece and Germany. MARVOW is coordinated by the Association of Autonomous Austrian Women’s Shelters – AÖF in Austria. More info: www.marvow.eu

Background: Violence against older women is a gender-specific and serious social problem. The extent and frequency of this violence is enormous. According to the FRA survey of 2014, 19% of all women over 60 years of age have experienced violence in the partnership from the age of 15. In 17%, the violence was not committed by the partner. But only 14% of women reported the most serious incident to the police. The number of unreported cases is estimated to be much higher. Older women are exposed to a higher risk of violence: Because they are old, female, often affected by years of partner violence, face various forms of discrimination throughout their lives, face specific and complex disadvantages and are often economically very dependent – especially if they are already in need of care. However, precisely these dimensions of gender-based violence are often overlooked.

MARVOW is intended to work more closely together at the regional level to close the gaps and deficits in the violence and victim support system and to improve the situation for older women who have been victims of violence. The aim is to establish a multi-institutional platform for older victims of violence and perpetrators of violence against older women – together with those organisations and authorities that deal specifically with older women affected by violence.

Project Leaflet in English, Estonian, Greek, German, and Russian.

Training materials (.ppt/slides) on Multi-Agency Cooperation in English, Estonian, Greek, German, and Russian.

Project partnership:

Association of Autonomous Austrian Women’s Shelters (AÖF), Austria, Maria Rösslhumer, maria.roesslhumer@aoef.at
Union of Women Associations of Heraklion Prefecture (UWAH), Greece, Nicholas Spetsidis, projects@kakopoiisi.gr
Women’s Support and Information Centre, Estonia, Pille Tsopp-Pagan, pille.tsopp-pagan@naistetugi.ee
University of Tartu, Estonia, Olena Sologub, olena.sologub@ut.ee
European Network for the Work with Perpetrators of Domestic Violence/ Work with Perpetrators e.V. Francesca Elsey francesca.elsey@work-with-perpetrators.eu
Women against Violence Europe (WAVE), Austria, Elena Floriani, elena.floriani@wave-network.org

NPO Women’s Support and Information Centre’s self-financing in the project is co-funded by National Foundation of Civil Society with 10 000 euros.

CYBERSAFE is a 2-year project funded by the European Union. Nine project partners from various European countries aim to develop, promote and disseminate innovative experiential as well as playful educational ICT tools that facilitate behavioural change among teenagers (13-16) on cyber VAWG.

CYBERSAFE promotes healthy relationships and gender equality online. It provides information and tools to prepare and facilitate four workshops on these topics, in order to encourage and support teenagers in safe and responsible online behaviour.

The project aims to create and evidence-based, attitude-changing prevention educational intervention, for teenagers on cyber gender violence against women and girls, applicable to all EU countries. CYBERSAFE will address cyber violence against women and girls and develop a systematic gender sensitive approach to prevent it and promote healthy relationships and gender equality online. The project also aims to develop and promote innovative experiential as well as playful educational ICT tools that facilitate behavioural change among teenagers regarding cyber violence against women and girls. Professionals working with teenagers will also be facilitated to run and implement educational prevention programmes on cyber violence against women and girls.

Within the scope of the CYBERSAFE project, the project partner University of Ljubljana published the report “Cyberviolence against Women & Girls”. This publication is the final report of Work Package 2 of CYBERSAFE and presents a comprehensive overview of the topic of cyberviolence. Thanks to an accurate literature review, the existing findings on the topic are presented, such as an analysis of the different forms of cyberviolence and its contextualization, and the existing research and online tools to tackle it. The situation in the project’s partner countries is also presented, as well as the results of the focus groups conducted in Estonia, Northern Ireland, Greece and Italy. The report also provides detailed information regarding the legal framework applied in cases of cyberviolence, along with the target behaviours and objectives of the project.

Download the report here.

Project partners:
SYNDESMOS MELON GYNAIKEION IRAKEIOU& N IRAKLEIOU (UWAH), Greece
TARTU ULIKOOL (UTARTU), Estonia
UNIVERZA V LJUBLJANI (UL), Slovenia
WOMEN AGAINST VIOLENCE EUROPE (WAVE), Austria
STICHTING INTERNATIONAL CHILD DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES (ICDI), Netherlands
SERIOUS GAMES INTERACTIVE APS (SGI), Denmark
MTU NAISTE TUGI- JA TEABEKESKUS (WSIC), Estonia
RETESALUTE AZIENDA SPECIALE (Retesalute), Italy
NORTHERN IRELAND RAPE CRISIS ASSOCIATION (NexusNI), United Kingdom

Read more: www.stoponlineviolence.eu

NPO Women’s Support and Information Centre’s self-financing in the project is co-funded by National Foundation of Civil Society with 3715,47 euros.

Training to Identify and Support Older Victims of Abuse (TISOVA) projects seeks to train caregivers and older people so they can identify and provide assistance to elderly victims of abuse.

Project period: 1.09.2017 – 31.08.2020

5 partners: 

Women’s Support and Information Centre (Estonia)
Union of Women Associations of Heraklion Prefecture (Greece)
Voimaa Vanhuuteen – osk Voiva – Empowering Old Age Coop (Finland)
University of Tartu (Estonia)
Women Against Violence Europe (Austria)

Objectives:

– to train workers/volunteers of senior centers and older people to identify and provide assistance to elderly victims of abuse.

– to design an interactive training programme that provides active and innovative learning opportunities to educate key groups about violence against older people, especially women

– to strengthen the capacity of those who work with the elderly (such as at senior centers) to respond to specific needs of older women victims

– to contribute to a better understanding of the experiences and needs of elderly (female) victims of domestic violence and to empower them to seek assistance or take other action to break the cycle of violence

– to contribute to stakeholders’ implementation of elder abuse policu into practice, especially in relation to gender specific issues.

Target groups – 3 subgroups of people involved in the functioning of senior centres and day centres and interacting with seniors on a continuous basis:

– workers of senior centres, day centres, day groups etc;

– volunteers, involved in the above activities;

– seniors themselves.

Main outcomes:

*IO1 An analytical report on the experiences of female elderly victims of abuse and state practices targeted at them;

*IO2 A training/intervention programme on how to identify and provide support to older victims of abuse. The training programme will be administered twice each in Finland, Estonia and Greece reaching at least 120 people;
TISOVA Training Handbook for Professionals, Volunteers and Older People 

Also available in Estonian, German and Greek.

*IO3 Online Educational Program (MOOC), based on training program reaching at least 200 participants and available on projects webpage after the project end.

Online course available at: https://fasaproject.eu/moodle310/enrol/index.php?id=3

Development of “at a DIStance” COunselling Skills for professionals in the field of Counselling Women Victims of Violence or Abuse (DIS.CO.)

Project period: December 2017 – November 2019

Funding: Erasmus + programme Key Action 2

Budget: 225.805 EUR

Partners:
UWAH – Union of Women Associations of Heraklion Prefecture (Greece) (LP);
The Queen’s University of Belfast (United Kingdom);
University of Crete (Greece);
University of Tartu (Estonia);
Women’s Support and Information Centre (Estonia);
Mesokeleas LTD, Frederick University (Cyprus);
Nothern Ireland Rape Crisis Association (United Kingdom);
M&M Profuture Training, S.L. (Spain);
Women Against Violence Europe (Austria).

Main objectives of the Project:

• Strengthen cooperation, exchanges and networking between Partners on the topic of counselling at a distance for women victims of violence or abuse;
• Improve work-based skills of counsellors working with women victims by developing counselling at a distance skills through development and delivery of VET;
• Promote innovative practices in the field of counselling women victims and exploit ICT potential through developing/ improving ICT related skills and setting up virtual workplaces;
• Improve the capacity of participating organisations as well as other interested ones through the production and dissemination of training material and courses for staff and volunteers;
• Deliver efficient services of high quality for victims of violence or abuse in the context of victim support.

More info: https://discoprojectcom.wordpress.com/

“WHOSEFVA –Working with Healthcare Organizations to Support Elderly Female Victims of Abuse” (2017-2018)

Elder abuse is a worldwide concern that touches on human rights, gender equality, domestic violence and population ageing. The feminization of aging and its consequences is troubling, particularly given that older women as a group experience unique and compounding disadvantages. Older women face triple jeopardy in that they are part of three different marginalized groups: they are elderly, abused, and female.[1] Gender discrimination across the lifespan therefore has a cumulative effective, and neglect, abuse and violence across the lifespan results in a high lifetime rate of suffering from abuse for older women.[2]

It is clear that alternative channels for identifying older domestic violence victims are needed, however, even when they are identified, older female victims often do not receive appropriate assistance because they have complex issues of long-term dependency, health problems or economic vulnerability, just to name a few. Healthcare providers can play a crucial role in providing support, as they offer multiple entry points for identifying and serving domestic violence victims.

WHOSEFVA, a two-year project co-funded by the European Commission under the Daphne programme, aims to address the barriers and gaps which exist in healthcare settings to effectively support elderly women victims of abuse. The WHSOEFVA project will be implemented in the following six partner countries: Austria, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Latvia and the UK. The coordination of the project is conducted by Women’s Support and Information Centre in Estonia, with guidance and input from Finnish expert on elder abuse, Sirkka Perttu.

The main objective of WHSOEFVA is to increase the capacity of domestic violence organizations to better able represent the interests and voices of older women who are victims of abuse in healthcare and healthcare policy, thus helping to better comply with the desires of the EU.

A WHOSEFVA Training Manual will be developed to train domestic violence organizations on how best to work with healthcare providers. Experts will also train partners on how to conduct 33 mutual learning workshops with 734 healthcare professionals and individuals from domestic violence organizations to identify barriers in healthcare organizations in order to effectively meet the needs of women elderly abuse victims. Local Health and Social Care Trainings will also take place in each partner country targeting healthcare professionals on how to effectively implement the training tools and best practice protocols. The training materials will be made publicly available on the project website and will be translated from English into five languages: Estonian, Finnish, German, Greek and Latvian.

Furthermore, in order to ensure greater accessibility and sustainability of the trainings on a European-level, a WHOSEFVA online training programme will be developed based on the training material to strengthen the capacity of domestic violence organizations to cooperate with healthcare providers in identifying and responding to gender-based violence among elderly women.

Key contact information of WHOSEFVA partners:

Women’s Support and Information Centre, Estonia, Pille Tsopp-Pagan: pille.tsopp-pagan@naistetugi.ee
University of Tartu, Estonia, Hector Pagan: hector@ut.ee
Women’s Line Finland, Finland, Elina Nikulainen: elina.nikulainen@naistenlinja.fi
Sirkka Perttu, Finland: slperttu@gmail.com
Kilcooley Women’s Centre, UK, Roberta Gray: roberta@kilcooleywomenscentre.co.uk
Union of Women’s Associations of Heraklion Prefecture, Greece, Nicholas Spetsidis, projects@kakopoiisi.gr
MARTA Centre, Latvia, Dita Lāce: dita@marta.lv
Austrian Women’s Shelter Network, Austria, Maria Rösslhumer: maria.roesslhumer@aoef.at
Women against Violence Europe, Europe, Kelly Blank: kelly.blank@wave-network.org

WHOSEFVA Project Website: www.whosefva-gbv.eu

Small summary of different project we have done over the years.

2002 – Website for people in contact with domestic violence – www.naistetugi.ee

2003 – Alternative options for a woman suffering from intimate violence – Campaign, training trip to Finland.

2003 – Awareness raising campaign “There’s a way out of violence” – Awareness raising in the society.

2003-2004 – “Goodbye, violence in partnership” – Specialized literature was acquired, the website www.naistetugi.ee supplemented, teaching materials prepared, therapeutic sessions were organized.

2005 – “Do not be alone, get help!” – National awareness raising campaing.

2006 – Lundy Bancroft “Why does he do that?” – Translating and publishing the book in Estonian (2000 pc).

2007 – Awareness raising campaign “There’s a way out of Violence” in public transport in the city of Tartu – Awareness raising.

2007 – Lundy Bancroft and Jay G. Silverman “The Batterer as a Parent” – Translating and publishing the book in Estonian (2000 pc).

2008 – National helpline for victims of violence 1492 – Helpline.

2013-2015 – ”Developing services for victims of domestic violence, strengthening co-operation between different institutions and raising awareness among victims and the general public” – The overall goal of the project is to reduce gender-based domestic violence in Estonia.

2014 – Developing the Tartu Women’s Centers Ability to work with Russian-speaking clients and raising Russian youth awareness of family violence – Website, manuals, brochures translation to Russian. Trainings.

2014-2016 – Protecting the interests of single parents – reducing poverty in the weakest part of society – Reducing poverty among single parents

2014-2015 – Development of support services for victims of sexual violence – The main objective is to provide help and support for women who have experienced sexual abuse. Helpline.

2014-2015 – Volunteer Recruitment Development Program – Empowering NPOs.

2014-2015; 2015-2016; 2016-2017; 2017-2018; 2018-2019; 2019-2020 – Protecting Children who are victims of violence – Support service/counselling for children with the help of Lastefond Charity Foundation.

2017-2018 – Development of interest protection capabilities of the NGO Women’s Support and Information Center – Increase the capacity of the NGO Women’s Support and Information Center for strategic leadership

Empowering women to fight against domestic violence through an integrated model of training, support and counselling (WOMPOWER) a project co-financed by the European Union within the DAPHNE III programme.

The WOMPOWER project aims at empowering women, victims or possible victims of violence, to protect themselves against domestic violence. In this sense the project is organizing training, information and counseling sessions for women with the aim to create a protective environment for them within the family and in the community.The project has a duration of 2 years, starting on 1st January 2013 and ending on 31st December 2014.

The project is implemented in 8 European countries: Romania, Spain, Greece, Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Estonia and Austria.

International projects funded by European Commission DAHPNE Programme where NPO Women’s Supprot and Information Center has participated:

Funder: Open Estonian Foundation

Project period: 01.04.2014-31.12.2014

The aim of the current project is the improvement of knowledge in Russian language about domestic violence and increased possibilities for Russian speakers to get help in Tartu and surrounding counties.
There are many Russian speaking women coming to the shelter that only get information about our services from indirect sources. At the same time, based on our experience in serving them, the topic is an important one in the Russian community.

During the project employees will be trained to better communicate, translate existing forms and web-page materials into Russian. We will also create info materials that will be distributed in public places where victims often are (police, hospitals etc). We will also create training materials for Russian students and lectures based on those materials.  Our project will also focus on long term prevention, by raising awareness and educating young people via lectures given in Russian language schools.

Primary beneficiaries of the project are Russian speaking victims of domestic violence. Secondary beneficiaries will be Russian speaking students who will get introduction to the topic via lectures.

Outcomes of this project include:

• Translated materials about domestic violence on NGO-s website;
• Brochure on domestic violence and available services in Russian created (3000 copies);
• Trained employees of shelter;
• 10 lectures to high school students on how what domestic violence is and how it can be prevented/dealt with

More information: sirje.otstavel@gmail.com